Monday, May 12, 2014

Modern Print Monday: Loïs Mailou Jones


Designs for cretonne by
Loïs Mailou Jones
in the 1920s and '30s


Loïs Mailou Jones (1905-1998) 

Jones brought Harlem Renaissance ideas to fabric design.


Born in Boston, she graduated from  Boston's School of the Museum of Fine Arts. As a free-lance designer, Jones designed cretonnes (furnishing fabric) in the 1920s and '30s, selling designs to Schumacher and F.A. Foster.



These images are all croqui (tempera paintings for fabric). It would be great to find some vintage fabric made in her designs.

Woman by Loïs Mailou Jones
Collection of Howard University

She taught painting and design at Howard University from 1930 to 1977.

Read more about her:
http://womeninthearts.wordpress.com/2010/12/22/lois-mailou-jones-the-designer/

Here's an essay by Tritobia Benjamin at Howard University:

http://library.howard.edu/content.php?pid=558535

3 comments:

  1. Hey Barbara, I sent you en e-mail a while back. Let me know if you received it. xoxo-Bill

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  2. liked this artwork style alot

    ReplyDelete